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Everything you wanted to know about Feng shui including Design Tips & Tricks

Feng
shui (pronounced "fung shway") is the ancient
Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space to
achieve harmony with the environment. The literal
translation is "wind and water".

It is not a
decorating style. Rather, it is a discipline whose
guidelines are compatible with many different decorating
styles.

In general, for a place
to have "good feng shui" is for it to be in
harmony with Nature, to have "bad feng shui" is
to be incongruous with Nature. People aren't usually
described as having good or bad feng shui.

Qi (or Chi) -
Underlying the practical
guidelines of feng shui is a general theory of Nature.
Nature is generally held to be a discrete organism that
breathes qi (a kind of life force or spiritual energy).
The details about the metaphysics of what Nature is, what
qi is and does, and what breath consists in vary and
conflict.

It is not generally understood as physical, but
neither is it meant to be metaphorical or functionalistic (the latter being the view that even though an entity is
fictional, it is useful to talk as if it really exists)

The goal of feng shui guidelines is to orient dwellings,
possessions, land and landscaping, etc., so as to be
attuned with the flow of qi.

Very generally, some
common rules are:

When sitting at a desk
or lying in bed, the entrance door should be in a
clear line of sight, and you should have a view of as
much of the room as possible.

Straight lines and
sharp corners are to be avoided, and especially should
not point where people tend to sit, stand, or sleep.

Avoid clutter.

Roads to and from
ancient towns were often curved and windy, an attempt
to disorient and keep away evil spirits, who were
believed to travel in straight lines.

Some objects are believed
to have the power of redirecting, reflecting, or shifting
energy in a space. These include mirrors, crystals, wind chimes,
and flowing water.

The bagua - The bagua (or pa kua) of
the I_Ching (Book of Changes) is an octagonal
diagram that is used in feng shui analysis. Each direction
on the octagon (north, northeast, etc.) is thought to have
certain significant aspects, perhaps in part depending on
the birthdate of the person using it. By mapping the bagua
onto a home, village, cemetary, etc., information about
correct orientation and placement can be gleaned.

In recent decades many
feng shui books have been published in English, often
focusing on interior design, architecture, interior
decorating, and landscape design. Audiences have reacted
skeptically towards the purported benefits of crystals,
wind chimes, mirrored balls, etc., on one's life,
finances, and relationships. Often, these claims are
dismissed as New Age, pseudoscience, relying on the
placebo effect, or even outright fraud. The high prices
charged by some feng shui analysts is sometimes cited as
evidence of the fraud claim.

Other audiences reject
feng shui's justification for its rules (movement of
various energies, etc.), but believe that some of its more
practical rules (such as not working with one's back to a
door) are very useful.

It is unclear what
relationship these Western interpretations of feng shui
have to the Eastern tradition. Many traditional feng shui
practitioners in Asia regard Western adaptations as
inauthentic.